if the discretion of the chiefest guides of the Church did in a point so triviall so inconsiderable so mainely faile them as not to see the truth c. But you build too large a structure upon such a sandy foundation For here the discretion of the chiefest guides of the Church did not faile them as you imagine but they constantly kept their own severall customes in love and charity and therefore without Schisme till Victor would needs take too much upon him whereas the whole businesse was afterwards setled in that famous Councell of Nice So that here is no oversight of any truth as I conceive unlesse as you intimate before the truth is they should have kept no Easter at all and then as you say it was most unnecessary and most vaine to strive about the time of keeping it But such a truth as this the Christian world hath not yet embraced neither doe I know when it will So that for ought yet appeares unlesse you bring better reason against them we may take good directions from antiquity in the resolution of our moderne controversies and we may for all this examine the question on foot by the doctrine of those purer times and Heroick spirits although you are pleased to terme them poore spirited persons Which to mee seemeth a very strange appellation was S. Ambrose a poore spirited person who durst excommunicate that great Emperour Theodosius and forbid him to enter into the Church Was S. Chrisostome a poor spirited person who did preach against Eudoxia the Empresse and valiantly suffered banishment for it Was S. Athanasius either a poor spirited person who durst stand out even against all the World as it is storied of him Athanasius against the world and the world against Athanasius Or were any of those Fathers poor spirited persons who did couragiously suffer martyrdome for the testimony of Christ Can you name any one author auncient or moderne that hath so called or esteemed of them If not then it is but thus with you The Fathers are poor spirited persons because I say so who am animo defaecato Neither are you yet constant to your selfe in this assertion for although here you call them poor spirited persons yet afterwards you doe in effect unsay it where you so much approve of what Socrates observeth of them that they were the great disturbers of the Christian world Doe poore spirited persons use to make such hurly burlies Pardon me say you I know not what temptation drew this note from me And if you would pardon me I could give a great guesse at the temptation I feare it is a temptation of pride and singularity thus to trample upon those auncient worthies the better to make way for some kind of novelty And I would it were no worse then this of not keeping Easter TRACT The next Schisme which had in it matter of fact is that of the Donatist who was perswaded at least pretended so that it was unlawfull to converse or communicate in holy duties with men stained with any notorious sinne for howsoever that Austen doe specifie only the Thurificati and Traditores and Libellatici c. as if he separated only from those whom he found to be such yet by necessary proportion he must referre to all notorious sinners upon this he taught that in all places where good and bad were mixt together there could be no Church by reason of Pollution evaporating as it were from sinners which blasted righteous persons who conversed with them and made all unclean on this ground separating himselfe from all that he list to suspect he gave out that the Church was no where to be found but in him and his Associates as being the only men among whom wicked persons found no shelter and by consequence the only cleare and unpolluted company and therefore the only Church Against this Saint Augustine laid downe this Conclusion Vnitatem Ecclesiae per totum Mundum dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam which is indeed the whole summe of that Fathers disputation against the Donatists Now in one part of this Controversy one thing is very remarkable The truth was there where it was by meer chance and might have been on either side the reason brought by either party notwithstanding for though it were Defacto false that pars Donati shut up in Africke was the only Othodox party yet it might be true notwithstanding any thing Saint Augustine brings to confute it and on the contrary though it were de facto true that the part of Christians dispersed over the whole Earth were Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing Saint Augustine brings to confirme it For where or amongst whom or how many the Church shall be or is is a thing indifferent it may be in any number more or lesse it may be in any Place Country or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without any prejudice to the definition of a Church or the truth of the Gospell North or South many or few dispersed in many places or confined to one None of these doe either prove or disprove a Church Now this Schisme and likewise that former to a wise man that well understands the matter in Controversie may afford perchance matter of pitty to see men so strangely distracted upon fancy but of doubt or trouble what to doe it can yeeld none for though in this Schisme the Donatist be the Schismatick and in the former both parties be equally ingaged in the Schisme yet you may safely upon your occasions communicate with either if so be you flatter neither in their Schisme For why might not it be lawfull to goe to Church with the Donatist or to celebrate Easter with the Quartodeciman if occasion so require since neither Nature nor Religion nor Reason doth suggest any thing of moment to the contrary For in all publique meetings pretending holinesse so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and piety brooke why may not I be present in them and use communication with them Nay what if those to whom the execution of the publique service is committed doe something either unseemly or suspitious or peradventure unlawfull what if the garments they weare be censured nay indeed be superstitious what if the gesture of adoration be used to the Altars as now we have learn'd to speak what if the Homilist have preached or delivered any doctrine of the truth of the which we are not well perswaded a thing which very often falls out yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to beare a part in them our selves The Priests under Ely had so ill demeaned themselves about the daily sacrifice that the Scripture tells us they made them to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifice to the Priest for in those Schismes which concerne fact nothing can be a just cause of
Errare possum Hareticus esse nolo indeed Manichanisme Valentinianisme Macedonianisme Mahometisme are truly and properly Herises For wee know that the Authors of them received them not but invented them themselves and so knew what they taught to be a lye but can any man avouch that Arius and Nestorius and others that taught erroniously concerning the Trinity and the person of our SAVIOUR did maliciously invent what they taught and not rather fall upon it by error and mistake till that be done and upon good evidence we will thinke no worse of all parties than needs we must and take these Rents in the Church to be at the worst but Schismes upon matter of opinion in which case what we are to do is not a point of any great depth of understanding to discover if so be distemper and partiality do not intervene I do not see that opinionum varictas opinantium unitas are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or that men of different opinions in Christian Religion may not hold communion in Sacris and both go to one Church why may I not go If occasion require to an Arian Church so there be no Arianisme exprest in their Liturgy and were Liturgies and publique formes of Service so framed as that they admitted not of particular and private fancies but contained onely such things as in which all Christians do agree Schismes on opinion were utterly vanished for consider of all the Liturgies that are and ever have beene and remove from them whatsoever is scandalous to any party and leave nothing but what all agree on and the event shall be that the publique Service and Honour of God shall no wayes suffer Whereas to load our publique formes with the private fancies upon which we differ is the most soveraigne way to perpetuate Schisme unto the worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures Administration of Sacriments in the plainest and the simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private opinion or of Church Pomp of Garments or prescribed Gestures of Imagery of musike of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Church under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it selfe To charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was first the beginning of all superstition and when scruple of Conscience began to be made or pretended there Schisme began to breake in if the speciall Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete Customes or imposing new there would be farre lesse cause of Schisme or Superstition and all the inconveniance likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yeeld a little to the imbecillity of their Inferiors a thing which S. Paul would never haue refused to do meane while wheresoever false or suspected opinions are made a peice of Church Liturgy he that seperates is not the Schismatique for it is alike unlawfull to make profession of known or suspected falsehood as to put in practise unlawfull or suspected actions ANIMADVERSION Fiftly having trampled upon the Auncients you come now to the Church and levell that also with the ground It hath been say you the common disease of Christians from the beginning not to content themselves with that measure of faith which God and Scriptures have expressely afforded us but out of a vaine desire to know more then is revealed they have attempted to devise things of which we have no light from reason nor revelation Neither have they rested here but upon pretence of Church authority which is none or Tradition which for the most part is but fained c. I hath the Church no authority did not our Saviour giue power to the Church to punish excommunicate a notorious offendor when he saith goe tell the Church and if he heare not the Church let him be to thee a heathen or a Publican And did not his S. Paul give great power to the Church when he calleth it the Pillar and fortresse of truth It were easy here to enlarge my selfe and prove out of the Ancient Fathers did you not reject them that they attributed great powre authority to the Church But the Church of England whose sonne suppose you are and therefore cannot so well neglect her authority will tell you that the Church hath powre to decree rites or ceremonyes and authority in controversies of faith But here you would cry up the authority of the Scriptures that thereby you might decry the authority of the Church whereas these two are not opposite but subordinate one to another I meane the Church to the Scripture If therefore you will commend unto us the authority of Scripture you must also uphold the authority of the Church which is founded in Scripture but if you nullify the authority of the Church you must also neglect the authority of the Scripture which giveth the Church such power And let no man think the Roman Church will here break in upon mee for by Church I meane the truly auncient Catholick and Apostolicke Church from which the Roman Church is farre enough And as by Church so I meane by Tradition for where Tradition is fained none are to esteem of it but when it doth appeare unto us to be truly auncient Catholick and Apostolick it is not a little to be regarded Hereupon Vincentius would have us duplici modo munire fidem to fortify our faith two manner of waies primò divinae legis authoritate deinde Ecclesiae Catholicae traditione first by the authority of divine law then by the tradition of the Catholick Church Then he putteth that objection which you here and many others are used to make seeing that the canon of Scripture is perfect enough and more then enough sufficient in it selfe to all things what need is there that wee should joyne unto it the authority of Ecclesiasticall exposition Unto which me thinks he giveth a very satisfying answere Because all doe not understand the holy Scriptures by reason of the height thereof in one and the same sense but one interprets it one way and another a severall way So that there be as many minds and meanings about it almost as there be men For Novatus expounds it one way Donatus another Arius another Pelagius another c. Therefore it is very needfull by reason of so great and diverse errors that the line of Propheticall and Apostolicall interpretation be directed according to the rule of Ecclesiasticall and Catholick meaning So that true and Catholick Tradition is like unto a strong wall about the garden of holy Scripture which keeps it from the incursion of Hereticks or if they chance to get in it is a soveraine antidote to preserve us from the poison they suck out of these sweet flowers So that take the Church and Tradition in a right sense there is much to be attributed to them
A TRACT CONCERNING SCHISME AND SCHISMATIQVES WHEREIN Is briefly discovered the originall causes of all Schisme Written by a Learned and Judicious Divine TOGETHER With certain Animadversions upon some Passages thereof OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD for Edward Forrest 1642. A TRACT CONCERNING SCHISME HEresie and Schisme as they are commonly used are two Theologicall scar crows with which they who uphold a party in Religion vse to fright away such as making enquiry into it are ready to relinquish and oppose it if it appeare either erronious or suspitious for as Plutarch reports of a Painter who having unskilfully painted a Cock chased away all Cocks and Hens that so the imperfection of his Art might not appeare by comparison with Nature so men willing for ends to admit of no fancy but their own endeavour to hinder all enquiry into it by way of comparison of somewhat with it peradventure truer that so the deformity of their own might not appeare but howsoever in the common manage Heresie and Schisme are but ridiculous tearmes yet the things in themselves are of very considerable moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and therefore both deadly when they are not by imputation but in deed It is then a matter of no small importance truely to descry the nature of them that so they may feare who are guilty of them and they on the contrary strengthen themselves who through the iniquity of men and times are injuriously charged with them Schisme for of Heresie we shall not now treat except it be by accident and that by occasion of a generall mistake spread through all the writings of the Ancients in which their names are familiarly confounded Schisme I say upon the very sound of the word imports division Division is not but where Communion is or ought to be now Communion is the strength and ground of all Society whether Sacred or Civill whosoever therefore they be that offend against this Common society and friendlinesse of men if it be in civill occasions are guilty of Sedition or Rebellion if it be by reason of Ecclesiasticall difference they are guilty of Schisme So that Schisme is an Ecclesiasticall sedition as Sedition is a lay Schisme yet the great benefit of Communion notwithstanding in regard of divers distempers men are subject to Dissention and Disunion are often necessary For when either false or uncertain Conclusions are obtruded for truth and Acts either unlawfull or ministring just scruple are required of us to be perform'd in these cases consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or Schisme but due Christian animosity For the opening therefore of the nature of Schisme something must be added by way of difference to distinguish it from necessary separation and that is that the cause upon which division is attempted proceed not from Passion or from Distemper or from Ambition or Avatice or such other ends as humane folly is apt to pursue but from well weighed and necessary reasons and that when all other means having been tryed nothing will serve to save us from guilt of Conscience but open separation so that Schisme if we would define it is nothing else but an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once members now as in mutinies and civill dissentions there are two attendants in ordinary belonging unto them one the Choyse of an Elector or Guide in place of the Generall or Ordinary Governor to rule and guide the other the appointing of some publique place or Randevous where publike meetings must be celebrated So in Church dissentions and quarrells two appurtenances there are which serve to make Schisme compleat First in the choyce of a Bishop in opposition to the former a thing very frequent amongst the Ancients and which many times was the cause and effect of Schisme Secondly the erecting of a new Church and Oratory for the dividing parts to meet in publiquely For till this be done the Schisme is but yet in the wombe In that late famous Controversy in Holland De Pradestinatione auxiliis as long as the disagreeing parties went no farther then Disputes and Pen-Combats the Schisme was all that while unhatched but as soon as one party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new Pulpit in it for the separating party there to meet now what before was a Controversy became a formall Schisme To know no more then this if you take it to be true had been enough to direct how you are to judge and what to think of Schisme and Schismatiques yet because of the Ancients by whom many are more affrighted then hurt much is said and many fearefull doomes are pronounced in this case we will descend a little to consider of Schisme as it were by way of story and that partly farther to open that which we have said in generall by instancing in particulars and partly to disabuse those who reverencing Antiquity more then needs have suffered themselves to be scared with imputation of Schisme above due measure for what the Ancients speake by way of censure of Schisme in generall is most true for they saw and it is no great matter to see so much that unadvised and open fancy to break the knot of union betwixt man and man especially amongst Christians upon whom above all other kind of men the tye of love and communion doth most especially rest was a crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves men from the guilt of it but true and unpretended Conscience yet when they came to pronounce of Schisme in particular whether it was because of their own interest or that they saw not the truth or for what other cause God only doth know their judgements many times to speak most gently are justly to be suspected which that you may see we will range all Schisme into two rankes First there is a Schisme in which only one party is the Schismatique for where cause of Schisme is necessary there not he that separates but he that is the cause of separation is the Schismatique Secondly there is a Schisme in which both parties are the Schismatiques for where the occasion of separation is unnecessary neither side can be excused from guilt of Schisme But you will aske who shall be judge what is necessary Indeed it is a question which hath been often made but I think scarcely ever truly answered not because it is a point of great depth or difficulty truly to assoyle it but because the true solution of it carries fire in the taile of it for it bringeth with it a piece of doctrine which is seldome pleasing to Superiors To you for the present this shall suffice If so be you be animo defaecato if you have cleared your selfe from froath and grownes if neither sloath nor feare nor ambition nor any tempting spirit of that nature abuse you for these and such as these are the
true impediments why both that and other questions of the like danger are not truly answered if all this be and yet you know not how to frame your resolution and settle your selfe for that doubt I will say no more of you then was said of Papias S. Iohns own schollar your abilities are not so good as I presumed ANIMADVERSION THIS tract I must confesse is handsomly and acutely penned and many things in it well worthy our observation Yet because I greatly honour antiquity and highly reverence the holy Fathers of the Church I must crave pardon if I deale plainly and roundly with the Author thereof who in some passages as I conceive doth two much neglect antiquity and indeed all authority For first in that he saith the Fathers generally mistake in confounding these names of Heresies and Schisme they doe not mistake them but commonly distinguish them or it is no great matter if they doe they are so neerly linked together that they are seldome seperated you shall hardly find any one guilty of Schisme but he doth easily and very often fall into Heresie Schisme say you is an unnecessary seperation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once members But as you will put the question afterwards who shall be judge what is necessary and you are loath to assoile this question because the solution thereof carryeth fire in the taile of it for it bringeth with it a peice of doctrine seldome pleasing to superiors Is this doctrine let me aske you good or bad If good then it should then I hope it will be pleasing to superiours If bad then should it displease superiours and inferiours too But the truth is the doctrine is most pernicious to government and therefore to all sorts of people to wit in plaine termes it is this that every one must judge for himself with this proviso so he be animo defaecato And I pray who shall judge of this Even your selfe also So that if you be perswaded that you are animo defaecato and if you thinke you have cleared your selfe from the froath and grownes of feare sloath and ambition then it must needs be so whereas the heart of man being deceitfull above all things there is nothing more usuall then for a man to deceive himselfe and think he is thus and thus when he is nothing so And seeing the best of us all have faces enough in us why may not superiors have as few of these dreggs in them as inferiors and so as well able at the least to judge a right as they And you may talke what you will of being clear from the froath of ambition I know not what greater pride and ambition there can be then thus to pull downe all authority and jurisdiction and erect a tribunall in euery mans brest And yet he that goeth about it will think him selfe to be animo defaecato And you may well say it carrieth fire in the taile of it For thus to trample under foot all power and authority by making every one his own judge must needs raise a great combustion and a strange confusion in the world Secondly you cannot endure that they should be truly Hereticks and Schismaticks which were anciently so esteemed For say you men are more affrighted then hurt by the Auncients and that many reverence antiquity more then need and after tell us in plain tearmes that when they came to pronounce of Schismes in particular whether it were because of their own interests or that they saw not the truth or for what other cause God only doth know their judgements many times to speak most gently are justly to be suspected Where I will not goe about to defend all the particular tenents of every Father for questionlesse being men they had their passions and perturbations as well as wee so that take them singly wee shall find in many of them such private conceits of their owne which cannot be so well excused Yet for all this when all or most of them agree together in any point we are not to question or doubt of the truth of it according to that ancient and hitherto well approved rule of Vincentius Lirinensis Whatsoever all of them or most of them in one and the same sense shall plainly frequently and constantly deliver and confirme let that be esteemed as a ratified certaine and undoubted truth So then though one or two of them may be mistaken yet that all or the greatest part should agree together in a falsehood I cannot easily believe And therefore I cannot think that the current of the Fathers should thus be mistaken and that they should generally account them for Hereticks and Schismaticks which were not so indeed I shall not so much suspect their judgements as his that thinks so But all this I perceive is that there might be some opinions favoured now which were commonly condemned by them as we shall see afterward TRACT But to goe on with what I intended and from that that diverted me that you may the better judge of the nature of Schismes by their occasions you shall find that all Schismes have crept into the Church by one of these three waies either upon matter of fact or upon matter of opinion or point of ambition for the first I call that matter of fact when something is required to be done by us which either we know or strongly suspect to be unlawfull so the first notable Schisme of which we read in the Church contained in it matter of fact for it being upon error taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept and upon worse then error if I may so speak for it was no lesse then a point of Iudaisme forced upon the Church upon worse then error I say thought further necessary that the ground of the time for keeping of that Feast must be the rule left by Moses to the Iewes there arose a stout Question whether we were to celebrate with the Iewes on the fourteenth Moon or the Sunday following This matter though most unnecessary most vaine yet caused as great a combustion as ever was in the Church the West separating and refusing Communion with the East for many years together In this fantasticall hurry I cannot see but all the world were Schismatiques neither can any thing excuse them from that imputation excepting only this that we charitably suppose that all parties did what they did out of Conseience a thing which befell them through the ignorance of their guides for I will not say through their malice and that through the just judgement of God because through sloath and blind obedience men examined not the things which they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couched downe and indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiours laid upon them by the way by this we may plainly see the danger of our appeale to Antiquity for resolution in controverted points of Faith and how small reliefe we are to expect from thence
for if the discretion of the chiefest Guides Directors of the Church did in a point so triviall so inconsiderable so mainely faile them as not to see the truth in a subject wherein it is the greatest marvaile how they could avoide the sight of it can we without the imputation of great grossenesse and folly think so poore spirited persons competent Iudges of the questions now on foot betwixt the Churches pardon me I know not what Temptation drew that note from me ANIMADVERSION Thirdly about keeping of Easter say you anciently all the world were Schismaticks A strange assertion to lay such an heavy imputation upon all those auncient worthies Had they been thus guilty it had been the part of a dutifull sonne to have made some apology for them and to have covered his Fathers nakednesse But a farre greater crime it is thus to accuse them without a cause The best of it is I shall not haue occasion here to excuse their error but to defend their innocencie For first their difference is not about a point that concerneth Faith or Good manners but only the outward discipline and government of the Church about the keeping of a solemne feast And that not whether we should keep it or no for all agreed well enough that it ought to be kept but about the time of keeping it whether at this or that time which is a matter of farre lesse moment The occasion of this difference briefly was thus St Peter and his successors at Rome kept Easter the Sunday after the foureteenth Moon But S. Iames and many of his successors at Ierusalem being all of them Ministers of the circumcision the sooner to win their brethren the Iewes condescended to keep their Easter as the Iewes did 14o Lunae Which diversity of observation continued for the space of 200. years neither Church censuring or condemning one another for it Till at the length Victor Pope of Rome would needs take upon him to bring all those Easterne Churches to his custome and excommunicate them for not yeelding whereupon grew the Schisme So that although at the first they kept Easter diversly for a long time together yet so long as there was no breach of charity between them there was no Schisme by your own confession who tell us that Schisme offends against charity as Heresy against truth So then whiles they were charitable one to another all the world were so farre from being Schismaticks that no part of it could be justly thus branded The Schisme indeed began when the Pope would needs rashly and unadvisedly excommunicate those Easterne Churches with whom he had nothing to doe But then was not the whole world but only Victor and his partizans the Schismaticks according to you who unjustly divided themselves from the other side the East Churches continuing their old custome without any Schisme at all yet some of them not forbearing to tell Victor of his unadvised and unjustifiable action For shall we not allow to severall Churches especially when they have no dependency one upon another their severall rites and observations but they must be all Schismatick for it You may as well call both these Churches Schismaticks for this also because the one Church fasts on Saturday the other fasts not the one administers the Eucharist in unleavened the other in leavened bread These and such like points concerne not the body of the Church but her garments now although her body must be but one yet her garments are of divers colours Nay as one saith very well diversitas rituum commendat unitatem fidei The unity of faith doth more gloriously appeare amidst the diversity of ceremonies and rituall observations I wonder if one of our refined spirits now a daies who is animo defaecato had lived in those times what could he have done to avoid this Schisme how could he have chosen but be a Schismatick on one side or another I conceive how he should have escaped by you to wit to joyne with neither side by keeping no Easter at all for with you it is an error to think that an Easter must be kept which position being put in practise will prove the greatest Schime of all thus to divide ones selfe from all the Christian world For although these holy Fathers differed for a while amongst themselves about the time yet they all agreed against you about the thing it selfe and not only the Orthodoxe but the very Hereticks of those times kept an Easter Not so much as the Novatians who called themselves Cathari the Puritans of the Primitive Church but an Easter they had though they were very indifferent about the time of keeping it And the whole Christian world ever since hath duely observed the keeping of Easter But you take no notice of this only your eare is to excuse those Fathers the best you can And you can find but this one way to doe it That we charitably suppose that all parties did what they did out of conscience a thing which befell them through the ignorance of their guides for I will not say through their malice and that through the just judgement of God because through sloath and blind obedience men examined not the things which they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couched downe and indifferently underwent whatsoever their superiors laid upon them Doe you call this an excusation and not rather an heavy censure and accusation both of Priest and People in those purer times For what a dishonour is this to the Pastors and Prelates then that they who lived so neare the Apostles should be such ignorant guides Nay what a disparagement is it to the very Apostles themselves that they should choose such ignorant guides that could instruct the people no better For some of these you speak of certainly were the immediate successors of the Apostles themselves They have been accounted hitherto men not only of conscience but of learning knowing and understanding pious and devout men in many of them the gift of doing miracles still remained I cannot with patience speak against this imputation But you are as bold with the people by accusing them of sloath and blind obedience and to be beasts of burthen because they did not examine what they were taught Whereas this good people had well learned that they should not they could not be wiser then their teachers and they had been newly taught from St Pauls own mouth that they were to obey those that had the rule over them and submit themselves Which was not a blind but a wise discreet holy and dutifull obedience But you it seems will teach the people another lesson to wit to guide their guides And they are now apt enough to learne it For they begin to practise it apace But you inferre upon these weak premises By this you may plainly see the danger of our appeale to antiquity for resolution in coutroversed points of faith and how small reliefe we are to expect from thence For
refusing of Communion but only to require the execution of some unlawfull or suspected act for not only in reason but in religion too that maxime admits of no release cautissimicuiusque Praeceptum quod dubitas ne feceris long it was ere the Church fell upōSchisme upō this occasion though of late it hath had very many for until the second Councell of Nice in which concileable Superstition and Ignorance did conspire I say untill the Rout did set up Image-worship there was not any remarkable Schisme upon just occasion of fact all the rest of Schismes of that kinde were but wantons this was truly serious in this the Schismaticall party was the Synod it selfe and such as conspired with it for concerning the use of Images in sacris First it is acknowledged by all that it is a thing unnecessary Secondly it is by most suspected Thirdly it is by many held utterly unlawfull can then the enjoyning of such a thing be ought else but abuse or can the refusall of Communion here be thought any other thing then duety Here or upon the like occasion to separate may peradventure bring personall trouble or danger against which it concernes any honest man to have pectus bene Praeparatum further harme it cannot doe so that in these cases you cannot be to seek what to think or what you have to doe ANIMADVERSION Fourthly you fall foule upon S. Austin in particular who I may boldly say hath deserved as well of the Christian world as any one man since the Apostles times And if this were my opinion alone I should suspect it but I appeale herein to the generall applause the learned have of him The truth was say you on S. Austins side against the Donatist but by meer chance For the Donatist might have been the only Orthodoxe party for any thing S. Austin brings to confute it and the other party might not have been Orthodoxe for any thing S. Austin brings to confirme it Then which what could have been spoken more derogatory to so famous learned and renowned a Father As if his arguments were so slight and silly both to defend himselfe and offend his adversary that they are not worth the reading or regarding but are as much as if he had said nothing at all Whereas it is well known and confessed that although this good father was renowned for many things yet his master peece doth appeare in his Polemicks who to the admiration of the World hitherto is accounted to have acutely subtly soundly confuted all those Hereticks and Schismaticks he wrote against and therefore deservedly stiled Malleus haereticorum the mauler of the hereticks Now he must be esteemed a silly man and to have said nothing against them You should doe well now you have thus accused him to set downe and make it appeare unto the world that his arguments both offensive and defensive against the Donatist are so slight and weake as you would make us believe There be some that will defend him and maintaine that this Father hath proved against the Donatist by irrefragable arguments drawn out of Scripture that the Church of Christ neither then was nor ever shall be drawn into such a narrow compasse as you and they imagine I would aske you this question If S. Austin hath given you so little satisfaction against the Donatist how doe you know but that the Donatist may be defacto in the right and S. Austin in the wrong for it seems by you it was but hap hazard which way it would goe I would therefore willingly learne the way you take to discerne which of these two waies is the right for it seems you have learnt nothing by S. Austin But me thinks you goe a strange way to worke to say the Church may be in none without any prejudice to the definition of the Church or the truth of the Gospell I would willingly know how you define a Church which shall consist of none and whether this be not most derogatory to the truth of the Gospell that Christ should have a Church which is in none that is as I conceive it should have no Church at all For although it pleaseth God to remove his Candlestick from one Country to another and that his Church should be like the Moon sometimes in the full and sometimes in the waine yet that it should be utterly eclipsed and quite vanish away directly crosseth the prophesies of the old Testament and the promises of the new But you will pitty S. Austin and those Fathers before him that were thus distracted upon fancy And me thinks the greatest pitty of all is that some of our wise men that so well now understand the matters in controversy had not lived in their times to have rectified them and put these fancies out of their heads But I know not whether it be not the greatest fancy of all to think our selves so wise and them so phantasticall But you easily resolve the doubt and think it lawfull to goe to Church with the Donatist or to celebrate Easter with the Quartodeciman so you flatter neither in their Schisme and there be nothing done but what true devotion and piety will brooks But how can this be for your joyning with them in their custome and communion must needs if not flatter yet much harten and encourage them in their Schisme Besides you give a great scandall and offence to the Orthodox party and make them justly so suspect that because you thus joyne with them in their publique communion that you favour at the least dislike not their private opinion Thus then to scandalize your brethren can never stand with true piety and devotion TRACT Come we then to consider a little of the second sort of Schisme arising upon occasion of variety of opinion It hath been the common disease of Christians from the beginning not to content themselves with that measure of Faith which God and Scriptures have expresly afforded us but out of a vaine desire to know more then is revealed they have attempted to devise things of which we have no light neither from Reason nor Revelation neither have they rested here but upon pretence of Church authority which is none or Tradition which for the most part is but fained they have peremptorily concluded and confidently imposed upon other a necessity of entertayning conclusions of that nature to strengthen themselves have broken out into divisions and factions opposing man to man Synod to Synod till the peace of the Church vanished without all possibiity of recall hence arose those ancient and many seperations amongst Christians occasioned by Arianisme Eutychianisme Nestorianisme Photinianisme Sabellianisme and many more both ancients and in our owue time all which indeed are but names of Schisme howsoever in the common language of the Fathers they were called Heresies for Heresie is an act of the will not of the reason and is indeed a lye and not a mistake else how could that of Austen go for true